The Annual Democracy Convention, hosted by Move to Amend and some other thirty convening/sponsoring organizations, represents a dedicated group of stakeholders who acknowledge that a main catalyst for social change in our country is the need to restore our democratic process.

In recent years, social and economic unrest has brought to the forefront of our collective lexicon phrases like, “We are the 99%” and “Get big money out of politics.” Terms like Super PACs and “dark money” appeared frequently in coverage of the last presidential election. It is no secret that our democracy has been co-opted by special interests and that all too often elected officials do not adequately stand up for the people they represent.

The organizations in attendance at the Democracy Convention covered a wide range of interests, tactics, and constituencies, and participants varied from veteran peace advocates to young family farmers, civil rights activists to intersectional feminists. What draws these groups together? How do all these issues (Economy, Media, Peace, Justice, Education, Environment) fit together to solve growing inequality in our country? This was the seminal question of the four-day convention. While there is no definitive answer, it is clear that the community of nonprofits working on the issue is growing to be ever more inclusive and that the movement is backed by a growing public awareness of and discontent with corporate control of our government.

In MCE’s presentation at the Convention, we connected democracy and ecology by citing corporate personhood as a direct threat to our abilities to live in a clean environment and advocate for ecosystem health. Our presentation was categorized as part of the Democratizing the Constitution Conference rather than the Earth Rights & Global Democracy Conference.

What happens all too often when environmental issues are folded into broader discussions or conferences, is that they become silo-ed or hyper-focused. The conversations develop around a single issue (i.e. fracking, tar sands, pesticides, water pollution, climate change) or become isolated to one community’s experience. While these conversations are valuable and a have a place in our revolution, they can lack context and ingenuity. It can become easy to ignore underlying issues of systematic oppression, like racism and classism, and the topic of the environmentalism can continue to carry the stigma that the movement is championed only by tree-huggers and hardcore preservationists. The work of protecting our environment often falls to short-term fixes of individual concerns like the direct improvement of specific habitats, enhancement of water quality in a certain areas, management of particular land uses, and regulation of pollution sources, and how to address these problems legislatively.… Read the rest

Over the last 40 years the average citizen’s income, security, education, health and prospects for their children’s future has eroded. It has become increasingly difficult to protect the environment and the rights of the majority of real people to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in this country. During the same time, corporations have become more monopolistic, powerful, large, and politically influential. Is there a correlation to these diverging paths?

Figure 1: Convention Agenda and Attendance Pins

Between August 3 and 6, 2017 MCE staff members Caitlin Zera and Brad Walker attended a Democracy Convention in Minneapolis, MN along with hundreds of other people from across the country. This was the third such convention since 2011. Thirteen organizations convened the convention that was broken into eight topic conferences covering a wide range of topics: including Community and Worker Power, Democratizing the Constitution, Earth Rights & Global Democracy, Democratizing our Schools, Colleges & Universities, Media Democracy, Peace & Democracy, Racial Justice, and Voting Rights & Open Government. The underlying theme was how to address the increasing negative impact of overwhelming corporate influence on all layers of government. Over 140 presentations with 150 speakers were offered, typically on 75 minute tracks with ten concurrent presentations.

The one significant difficulty with the convention was that too many interesting topics were offered concurrently; meaning we had to chose to attend one presentation from up to ten topics we may have wanted to learn about. Presentations were not recorded so there is no opportunity to watch the ones that were missed.… Read the rest

The People’s Guide to Environmental Action in Missouri is a multi-media project of Missouri Coalition for the Environment. The goal of this project is to empower community members to become more engaged in local environmental policies.

The People’s Guide to Environmental Action in Missouri will be a resource for concerned community members on the specifics of how and why to advocate for environmental issues in the state of Missouri. The guide will be a strategic combination of online, printed, and in-person resources..

Currently, MCE offers the The People’s Pocket Guide to Environmental Action, an abridged version, of the forthcoming full guide. The Pocket Guide is available in print and by downloading or clicking on the image.

This brief guide is an overview of environmental advocacy tactics. It provides a baseline understanding of environmental advocacy, including summaries of certain actions such as filing a public comment, and how these actions can be effective for resolving environmental concerns. The guide also touches on grassroots organizing and how to build momentum within a community around an issue.

Listen to the podcasts! Hear MCE discuss the guide, the importance of citizen advocacy, and how you can make a difference in your local government on KDHX’s Earthworms and KTRS’s Growing Green.

Community Events: In May 2017, MCE and the South Grand Cultural Alliance hosted an outdoor movie screening of the documentary We the People 2.0 and debuted The People’s Pocket Guide.